Dizzy Gillespie – Swing Era: Jivin’
In Be Bop (1947, edited)
Picture: C-
Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: B-
John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie was breaking ground every
time anyone turned around. In 1946, he
headlined a motion picture called Jivin’ In Be Bop, which was not a
Musical but a concert film with some vignettes. Idem Home Video has taken the film and cut out the MC sections,
and made it a part of their Swing Era series. I have to take issue with such editing, which could have been
chapterized, giving people the choice to skip the MC sections. The company could have even put those in a
supplement section, but eliminating them altogether, no matter what their
condition is unacceptable. He songs are
as follows, some with vocal, including Gillespie himself on some of the
non-credited tracks:
1) Salt
Peanuts
2) Be Bab A
Lee’ba (Helen Humes – vocal)
3) Oop Bop
Sh’bam (Johnny & Hennie – dancers)
4) Shaw
‘Nuff
5) I Waited
For You (Kenny Hagood – vocal)
6) Hubba-Hubba
Blues (featuring Dan Burley & Johnny Taylor)
7) Night In
Tunisia (Audrey Armstrong & Phil Harris – dancers)
8) Crazy
About A Man (Helen Humes – vocal)
9) One Bass
Hit
10) Boogie In C (featuring Dan Burley
& Johnny Taylor)
11) Dynamo A
12) Ornithology (Ray Sneed – tap dancer)
13) Her Beeped When He Should Have Bopped
14) Grosvenor’s Square (Daisy
Richardson – dancer)
15) Things To Come
16) Ray’s Idea (Ralph Brown – dancer)
17) Bag’s Boogie (Ray
Sneed – tap dancer)
18) Hubba-Hubba Blues
(reprise with Burley & Taylor)
The full
frame image is more consistent than usual, though the picture bleaches out
towards the beginning and in other parts.
This is all in black & white, as directed by Leonard Anderson and
originally lasted 59 minutes. With the
MC sections and credits eliminated, it now stands at just over 50 minutes. Don Malkames was the cinematographer. The PCM 2.0 Mono is also consistent, but
shows its age and was released in RCA’s optical monophonic format. There are no extras, though you can see the
poster image here and there for the feature film. Even with the missing parts, this edited Jivin’
In Be Bop is worth a good look.
- Nicholas Sheffo
